Geometric Modeling

This book is based on lectures presented at an international workshop on geometric modeling held at Hewlett Packard GmbH in Boblingen, FRG, in June 1990. International experts from academia and industry were selected to speak on the most interesting topics in geometric modeling. The resulting papers, published in this volume, give a state-of-the-art survey of the relevant problems and issues. The following topics are discussed: - Methods for constructing surfaces on surfaces: four different solutions to the multidimen sional problem of constructing an interpolant from surface data are provided. - Surfaces in solid modeling: current results on the implementation of free-fonn solids in three well established solid models are reviewed. - Box splines and applications: an introduction to box spline methods for the representation of surfaces is given. Basic properties of box splines are derived, and refinement and evaluation methods for box splines are presented in detail. Shape preserving properties, the construction of non-rectangular box spline surfaces, applications to surface modeling, and imbedding problems, are discussed. - Advanced computer graphics techniques for volume visualization: the steps to be executed in the visualization process of volume data are described and tools are discussed that assist in handling this data. - Rational B-splines: an introduction to the representation of curves and surfaces using rational B-splines is given, together with a critical evaluation of their potential for industrial application.

These workshop proceedings contain survey lectures on the methods of geometric modeling and their applications. The lectures are based on practical experience and their purpose is to supply a wide audience in industry and universities with new techniques.

Methods for Constructing Surfaces on Surfaces.- Surfaces in Solid Modeling.- Box Splines and Applications.- Advanced Computer Graphics Techniques for Volume Visualization.- Rational B-splines.- Scattered Data Interpolation and Applications: A Tutorial and Survey.- Variational Principles in Curve and Surface Design.- Gn?1 - Functional Splines for Modeling.- Numerically-Controlled Milling of CAD Surface Data.- Aspects of Form Feature Modelling.- Advanced Methods for Parametric Design.- A Tutorial Introduction to Blossoming.